Just thought I’d share a ‘Montessori Moment’ with the children. Princess is matching tastes. Using some old homeopathic bottles I filled them with different flavours, peppermint essence, vanilla, vinegar etc, the children really love this activity. On the bottom of the bottles are matching stickers to check for self-correction after they have made their selection. (If you note the tray the bottles are sitting it was a recent op-shop bargain, I found three sturdy timber trays with vinyl covering for $3 each!) A concentrated moment here. I find it most interesting how Michelangelo (9) loves to re-visit the easier activities, as well as enjoying new ones, here he is threading…

Whilst browsing in the op shop last week I discovered a couple of bags of shells for 50c. I had been debating whether to set up this activity or not after seeing shell nomenclature ‘in action’ on Emily’s blog. I wasn’t too sure if the children would be keen or not. When I found the shells I decided I had found our next activity. With some help from my favourite source of information, my friends at 4Real, I found shell nomenclature cards to print. The children were most interested waiting to see what I was doing. After printing out the cards I laminated them, cut them up and then set…

We’re on a real Montessori roll here in our ‘Home Among the Gum Trees’. On the weekend I started making fabric cards, I was inspired by Emily over at Sacred Heart of Jesus Academy it seemed like a do-able kind of activity to make. I looked around for some card to use as backing and found these index cards they had been sitting in Prince Charming’s shed of all places and he had been asking me to find a use for them, so I did. I then searched the house for different kinds of fabric and came up with eight different kinds, just a perfect number giving the girls a…

A few days ago I set up our first Montessori activity to discover that it needed to be more controlled, today we re-visited the activity, this time I used marbles from a board game This time the older children came upon the activity and declared that they must also have a turn

I have been spending alot of time lately at 4 Real reading, learning and discussing more about Maria Montessori’s teachings. There is so much to learn and so much to organise. However I decided if I waited till I had everything just perfect I would never be able to start. Last Friday Jelly Bean and I went op shopping for a couple of items. She was most excited with the baskets and tongs that we found. She came home all eager to use ‘her presents’. So although I wasn’t ready, not really, as I had intended to read the presentations properly first I set her up with her first activity.…